Troy and the Northeastern Aegean

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the 14th to the 7th centuries in northwestern Anatolia and adjacent islands. The geographical scope includes the area around Troy and the Hellespont in the north and the region of Aeolis, which is located between the Edremit Bay and the northern side of the Hermos river (modern Gediz). The islands of the northeastern Aegean (Lesbos, Lemnos, Imbros, Tenedos, and Samothrace) need to be considered together with the coastal sites of northwestern Anatolia because they often share features of material culture. The discovery of Early Iron Age (EIA) contexts at Troy and Lesbos, and especially the Group I amphorae, has prompted scholars to reevaluate the evidence for a migration of Greeks to Aeolis and the Troad in the EIA, the Aeolian migration described by ancient authors. The migration stories are set in the time period following the Trojan War and feature the descendants of Orestes and his father Agamemnon.